Alliance to End Chickens as Kaporos Files Lawsuit Against Hasidic Rabbis and Synagogues in Brooklyn

NEW YORK, July 15, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Alliance to End Chickens as Kaporos along with 20 additional plaintiffs filed a lawsuit in the New York Supreme Court New York to issue an injunction against Hasidic rabbis and synagogues in Brooklyn from participating in "Kaporos," a highly controversial religious custom which involves the confinement, torture and barbaric slaughter of more than 50,000 chickens on public streets every year during the week preceding the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur. The case also names the NYPD, NYC Department of Health and the City of New York for failing to enforce city health laws and animal cruelty laws, among others. The Alliance to End Chickens as Kaporos was formed in New York City in 2010 as a project of, and under the umbrella of, United Poultry Concerns, founded by Karen Davis, Ph.D. Kaporos using live chickens is also practiced in other cities throughout the U.S. and Canada, including Los Angeles. See 2014 Brooklyn Kaporos video here: http://bit.ly/1gsvAmw.

PLAINTIFFS The 21 plaintiffs are a group of individuals and residents of the subject locations who have endured the inconvenience, nuisance, filth, stench, public health risk and emotional trauma involved in Kaporos for years. Each plaintiff is gravely concerned about the health risks in their community, the contaminants on the streets and sidewalks and the emotional trauma caused by the bloody animal violence they are forced to witness.

WHAT IS KAPOROS Kaporos is allegedly a ritual of atonement practiced by Hasidic Jews as part of the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur. The ritual involves practitioners grasping live chickens by their wings and swinging them above the practitioners' heads. The purpose of this act, followed by the slaughter, is allegedly to transfer the practitioners' sins and punishment to the birds, allegedly absolving the participants of their sins. In order to conduct the slaughter of the birds, Kaporos involves the erection of make-shift slaughterhouses on the public streets and sidewalks of the City of New York. Dead chickens, half dead chickens, chicken blood, chicken feathers, chicken urine, chicken feces, other toxins and garbage such as used latex gloves and filthy tarps consume the public streets. There is no oversight and no remedy for cleanup. Plaintiffs maintain that operating such illegal public slaughterhouses causes and creates a public nuisance, a public health risk, a public health hazard and a dangerous condition.

PUBLIC HEALTH THREAT Michael J. McCabe, Jr., Ph.D., DABT, ATS, an expert on matters involving toxicology, microbiology, immunology, human disease causation and environmental health sciences, opines that the events involved in Kaporos constitute a substantial public health risk that could have catastrophic consequences. In his 25 page affidavit, Dr. McCabe warns that the Kaporos activities put the public at risk for unacceptable exposure to known toxic and infectious biohazards. He says that handling poultry is a source of infectious disease for humans, and the activities of Kaporos put participants and nearby residents at risk for Salmonella, Campylobacter, avian viruses including certain strains of influenza and other bacterial pathogens such as Arcobacter, Chlamydophila and E. coli. According to Dr. McCabe, it is for this reason that slaughterhouses are heavily regulated and supervised. He says in the report that, "The activities associated with the Kaporos event represent a hazardous condition; namely, the operation of a large scale, open-air and unrestricted access makeshift poultry slaughterhouse in the middle of a major urban population center. . . .The fact that Brooklyn is a borough in the country's largest metropolis that has major mass transportation systems in place such as subways, buses and airports, increases the likelihood of the threat of a substantial, city-wide, and even nationwide or worldwide outbreak of the illnesses described herein."

ANIMAL CRUELTYAll of the plaintiffs witnessed chickens being tortured, unjustifiably injured and maimed, and deprived of food and water. Chickens are usually grabbed by their wings, sometimes three birds at a time. According to veterinarian John Hynes, DVM, this causes ligaments to rip and wings to break, causing extreme agony for the birds. Meanwhile the birds are packed tightly into transport crates and stacked up to 10 crates high, with no protection from the elements, no food or water, and excrement constantly falling on them from the birds above. The birds often die of heat prostration, dehydration and starvation before they are ever used. Plaintiffs have witnessed garbage bags on the city streets moving only to find dying and live birds inside slowly suffocating to death.

THERE IS NO RELIGIOUS EXEMPTION FOR BREAKING LAWS DESIGNED TO PROTECT PUBLIC HEALTH The case was filed by attorneys Nora Constance Marino and Jessica Astrof. According to Marino, "A myriad of laws are being violated every year while the NYPD turns a blind eye. There is absolutely no religious exemption for breaking laws designed to protect public health and safety. The New York State legislature clearly proscribes the erection of any slaughterhouse on residential streets in an effort to protect residents from the health hazards inherent in slaughterhouse operations. There is simply no way around that prohibition. Religious activities never trump laws designed to protect public health from catastrophic danger. A man cannot stone his wife and claim religious freedom under Sharia law. Murder is murder. Likewise, the Kaporos practitioners cannot operate a slaughterhouse in a residential neighborhood when New York State law strictly prohibits it to protect the public from potentially life threatening illnesses associated with the unregulated slaughter of animals on public streets."

COINS AS AN ALTERNATIVE TO CHICKENSCo-counsel Jessica Astrof, a practicing Jew herself (along with eight of the plaintiffs, two of whom are ultra-Orthodox) says that, "It is one thing for these communities to be violating the Jewish teachings in the Torah relating to tza'ar ba'alei chayim, which prohibits animal cruelty, but to violate New York State and City laws regarding public health and safety raises the severity of this infraction to a whole new level. The NYPD told our plaintiffs that they could not enforce health laws or animal cruelty laws because 'their hands were tied.' Ultimately judicial intervention became their only recourse." According to Orthodox Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz, Kaporos can still take place while at the same time abiding by, and not violating, existing laws. There is an easy solution for this; the practitioners can use coins. According to Yanklowitz, the Jewish religion permits the use of coins for Kaporos. Hasidic rabbis, including Rabbi Yonassan Gershom, have made public pleas for fellow Hasids to use coins instead of torturing birds.

MONEY-MAKING ENTERPRISE RATHER THAN A SOLEMN RITUALThe event is described as a "party-like," "carnival" atmosphere. Most Jews around the world, including many Hasidic Jews, perform Kaporos using coins instead of live chickens. But in Crown Heights, Boro Park and other parts of Brooklyn, the chicken swinging and slaughtering operation has turned into a million-dollar enterprise for the synagogues, as each of the 50,000 chickens is "sold" for approximately $20, all at the expense of the public health, safety and quality of life. Plaintiffs describe the ritual as a "carnival-like" atmosphere, with children running around, kicking birds and stomping in the chicken blood. Rabbi Shea Hecht, considered the leader of Kaporos in Brooklyn, was quoted in the Shmais News Service referring to the marketing of chickens during Kaporos as a "private business" citing his competition as simply the result of "capitalism." But as Marino sees it, "Capitalism is not religion. There is no Capitalism Freedom Restoration Act. Clearly this has become a money-making scheme rather than a sacred religious ritual."

WHAT TO EXPECT NEXT A hearing is anticipated in August to determine whether a preliminary injunction will be granted this year, foreclosing the use of live chickens in September 2015 and requiring the Hasidic communities to join most other Jews around the world and perform the custom using coins.